Lots of self-publishing authors say that writing the book is the easy part, because after writing and publishing comes marketing. And it’s hard! With the self-publishing market being so saturated, you need to do everything you can to get your book in front of readers.
Book contests are a great way to generate publicity about your book.
Why not try it? If you win one of these awards, it would be great publicity for your book, which will draw more readers to you. Even if you don’t place, saying you entered the contest is a great way to generate interest and support on your author social media pages.
But as with everything in the self-publishing world (from choosing a reputable editor to spending money on a book marketing service), make sure to do your homework—there are a lot of illegitimate contests. Just so you’re aware, a lot of book contests ask you to mail in a physical copy for ease of reading for the judges, so make sure you have paperback copies to spare.
If you want to search for your own contests, a good place to start is any of the contests on Reedsy’s list of Best Writing Contests. There is also a pretty big list of book awards and contests at ALLi’s website. I’d also recommend these tried-and-true contests for fiction books:
- The Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards is a prestigious award for books of all genres.
- The IBPA Book Award (formerly known as the Benjamin Franklin Award) through the Independent Book Publishers Association is a pretty big award, something to be proud of. My client Bill Riley’s memoir Baghdaddy won Best New Voice – Nonfiction.
- The Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY Awards) is well known in the fiction genre, and would be a particularly good one to enter or win! Tracy Causley’s In the Shadow of Light won the Bronze Medal for Best First Book – Fiction in 2018.
- The International Book Awards, put on by the American Book Fest. Isaac Grisham’s debut novel The King’s Sun was a 2018 Finalist in the LGBT Fiction category.
- The American Book Fest gives awards to self-published and traditionally published fiction authors. Bill Riley won Best New Non-Fiction for his memoir Baghdaddy at the 2019 Best Book Awards.
- The Eric Hoffer Book Award is one of the largest international book awards for small, academic, and independent presses.
- The Next Generation Indie Book Awards is the largest international awards program for indie authors and independent publishers.
- IndieBRAG focuses exclusively on self-published fiction authors.
Be sure to check out the growing list of award-winning books I have edited. You might find inspiration to submit to contests my clients have previously won!
Book editor Kristen Hamilton is the owner and sole employee of Kristen Corrects, Inc., where she provides manuscript editing services for traditionally and self-publishing authors. Several authors whose books she has edited have won awards and have topped Amazon’s best sellers lists.
Reading is Kristen’s passion, so when the workday is over, she can usually be found curled up with a good book alongside her four cats. She loves watching cat videos and scary movies, eating pizza, teaching herself French, and traveling, and she is likely planning her next vacation. She lives outside of Boise, ID.
BS”D (be ezrat Hashem, with G-d’s Help)
Hi Kristen
I want to write my authobiography.
sad to say i was raped by a 27 yo Minister when i was 14 years old but out of fear and shame; i never told anyone. its been almost 30 yrs ago. I found out that this guy still an active minister and works in Highschool. somehow i found out he is still an sex maniac (i pretended to be FB friends with him and though he is married he is hitting on me and he made an FB secret acct for only his female highschool stidents. and he is good in hiding it in public. he lives in Philippines and i now live in USA.
I dont want to put myself in public sueing him about the past. I rather expose his corruption in my book so people (school workplace & church) who can recognize the hints and revoke his minister license, and keep other possible sex victims, etc. can i change his and his family real names (but using same initials) can i use real work place and his real religion and his real regional birth place without metioning the exact city?
Since i plan to publish here in USA. can anybody from other country like Philippines; G-d forbid can file a complaint if the author Fil-American and the book is publish in USA?
PS. how much do you charge as an editor? Thank you!
Hi Belle, I’m sorry to hear about your traumatic experiences–those sound just awful.
Unfortunately, without legal proof of what he did to you, any book you publish with his real name in it would fall under US laws of libel and defamation. So yes, you can change his real name (his first name and family name) but keep his birth region and his real religion. I’d suggest against naming his real workplace, however.
I’m not well-versed with international laws pertaining to people from the Philippines filing a complaint about a book published in the United States. I’d suggest speaking to an international IP (intellectual property) rights lawyer for that question.
And finally, as far as my editing fees: I have 4 different editing services, so the project total depends on which one(s) you select. Typically, book editing costs anywhere from $1500 to $5000 depending on the size of your book and the services needed. You can email me directly at kristen@kristencorrects.com to chat more.